📍Santa Barbara, California, USA
1984 – 2001“Katy Perry was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in October 1984 in Santa Barbara, California, the middle child between her sister Angela and brother David. Her parents, Keith and Mary Hudson, were Pentecostal pastors who travelled to found churches across the country before settling back in Santa Barbara, and her childhood was strictly religious: she went to Christian schools and camps, and at home only gospel music was allowed. Despite the beauty of the coastal city, the family was often short of money and sometimes relied on food stamps and a food bank. She began singing in her parents' church at nine, and when her sister brought home secular cassette tapes, Katy would borrow them and secretly perform the songs. On her thirteenth birthday she got her first guitar and began writing her own songs, and she took singing lessons. She also took up swing dancing, and the sun, surf and beaches of Santa Barbara gave her a taste for colour and freedom that her strict household did not. She has described her childhood as a mixture of love, faith and longing to break out. At fifteen she left high school after passing her equivalency exam and went to Nashville to work with songwriters, recording a gospel album under her own name, Katy Hudson, in 2001. When it failed to sell, she moved to Los Angeles and, years later, reinvented herself as Katy Perry, taking her mother's maiden name. I Kissed a Girl made her a star in 2008. She has often spoken about her religious upbringing in Santa Barbara, and her complicated but loving relationship with her parents.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today